Been a long time

I'm not even sure if anyone follows this blog anymore. It's really been so long since I've updated over here.

One of my last posts was my Goals for 2013 post.

I had some pretty decent goals. Unfortunately, much of that went by the wayside very early on in the year. In mid-January, Dahlia was attacked at a play group by another dog. She's had dogs go after her before, but this time was different. This time she got injured. A minor one to be sure (she had one small, shallow puncture wound on her shoulder), but that was enough to make her nervous of other dogs being around, especially when she was working.

I took her to a trial late in January and she was so stressed out that she just shut down and refused to move off the start line. Twice. I ended up pulling her from the trial and went home to cry.

I decided not to go back to another trial until I could be at an outdoor one, so I decided that I would go back to Max 200 in April. It was a small trial with terrible weather (about 45 degrees and cold and windy) and so she did ok. I won't say she did great. She stayed with me. She at least took off from the start line even if she wasn't brilliant. Sometimes I had to babysit the obstacles. Sometimes she took off flying. It was really a hit or miss kind of thing. She ended up getting Q's in both Colors and Wildcard, which resulted in getting her first Level 2 title (CTL2-H).





I was incredibly proud of her.

But then we ran into more problems. She started to get so distracted in class she couldn't work all that well. We tried to work through that and I brought her to a trial in July. It was hot and humid and so she was lackadaisical to start with. She refused to do anything on the first run at all. I decided to try her for one more run. Between runs, a couple of dogs went for her. They were on long lines and didn't make contact with her so I thought nothing of it. I wet her down, got her excited, and she took off flying from the start. Over a jump, right into a tunnel. I was so pleased. But then the end of the tunnel faced directly where the two dogs were. She stopped and could not work with those two dogs staring at her from the other side of the ring (some 20-30 feet away).

We ended up going home in shame. The judge stopped to talk to us about it because she couldn't figure out what had happened. She was moving so well and then just...nothing.

She got worse in class at that point. I had a couple weeks of classes where she simply would not move. Every little thing distracted her. It was a struggle and I was ready to throw in the towel. My instructor suggested taking time off of trials (which ultimately had to happen anyway as I had no money for them) and focusing on getting her used to dealing with distractions. She said there are two types of dogs in agility: (1) Dogs who are distracted from the get go and who need to be worked with on that right from the start and (2) Dogs who go out to several trials, do well, and then suddenly realize there are distractions there and shut down. Dahlia is the latter. One of her dogs was too, so she sympathized.

I ended up taking Dahlia down to the park with one single jump and a ball that velcros closed to hide treats in it. One jump, ball o' treats. Another jump, ball o' treats. We did this until she could get excited and do it every time in a quiet place. We did a couple weeks of it where no one was around.

Then we upped the ante and moved it to a busier area of the park. And then nearer to the kids playing on the playground. Then nearer to where some dogs were. Eventually I added more than one jump and was able to keep her focus even with her Daddy laying just underneath the jump with a wide-angle lens, which enabled us to get photos of her that looked like this.


 

Working on distractions also enabled me to get this photo. I never could recall her over a jump while facing her with a camera before.


 

Isn't she gorgeous?

So that helped, but it still didn't quite get her where I wanted her to be. So my instructor suggested teaching her to bark since barking is naturally exciting to dogs. Perhaps I'll discuss how I went about doing that in another post. But suffice it to say, I taught my super quiet dog how to bark on command.




This has freed her in ways I never would have imagined. She's become a happier more focused dog in class. She now barks at us to play and even recently barked at me to tell me she really really had to go out because she wasn't feeling well. She is a changed dog and I didn't think that was possible.




So what will this year hold? I don't know. I'm not making any goals except to enjoy the experience with my dog. We'll try to get back to at least a trial or two, depending on the state of my finances. If she's not the same joyful dog she is in class, then it may ultimately not be worth it. I'll take her to class and have fun with her. If she turns out to be just a dog who enjoys class settings and fun matches, then so be it! I'll be ok with that in the end. Because just watching her on that video, just seeing how far she's come, that is the important thing.

Internationalization: The Newbie's Perspective

This post was written for the Dog Agility Blog Event.  You can see all the fabulous posts here.

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When I first read that the subject for this month's blog action day was "Internationalization" I have to admit that, much like my dog when she has no clue what I'm on about, I cocked my head to the side and went "Huh?"

We're a pretty green team.

Ok wait.  Back up.  We're a super green team.  And we're not talking about those lovely mature shades like forest green or hunter green.  We're talking something like, say, chartreuse.  That color that's part green and part yellow.  The perfect color for Dahlia and I.  Part newbie, part scared out of my wits, part ready to tuck tail and run when faced with a course at a trial.  If I could, I'd get all her ribbons in chartreuse.  It seems fitting, after all.

But anyway...I digress.

What all this means is that I had to ask people what on earth "internationalization" meant outside of "going someplace other than the USA to trial."  So I asked a community I belong to.  Here were a fewof the answers that made the most sense to me.

International courses are hard and set up to really challenge handling.

To me, an international course is wrap-centric.

More hard angles, backsides of jumps, lots of twisty turns. Definitely made to challenge your handling skills. 
  
I understand all of that.  I may be green, but I've been involved in agility for over two years now and I've been reading about it and studying courses and talking to people about it for several years.

However, can I execute any of that?  Well, some.  But certainly not all.  Maybe not even most.

So when I watch these amazing international competitors my mind sort of boggles at how they get it all done, at the speed and grace and amazing fluidity of their running, the connection they have with their dog that at times seems almost supernatural.  I love watching it.  But frankly, it scares me.

Dahlia and I?  We're not "international" material.  We're not even national or regional or state material.  We're just a girl and her dog enjoying some time together.  We're CPE Level 2, not International.  People have been talking about internationalization "trickling down."  I understand it.  I really do.  People want more challenges.

Great.

Perfect.

But please, as you're considering these new challenges, as you're thinking of ways to up the ante, please don't let it trickle down too far.  Already, from my understanding, AKC Novice has become much harder than it was several years ago.  For someone at my level, it's incredibly challenging.  I spent an entire year in CPE Level 1 just trying to master the basics (and CPE Level 2 is awfully close to level 1, so we haven't progressed too far).  I attempted AKC Novice twice, both times failing to get one Q.  

Please try to remember the newbies, the green handlers, and even more so, the chartreuse ones like myself.  We're out there to enjoy ourselves, but if courses for newbies are too challenging, how many people are going to be scared off?  How many are going to throw in the towel and quit?  Sure, you may say "Then maybe they shouldn't have been doing that in the first place."  But why so?  Doing agility, even at our lowly level, has created a wonderful bond between Dahlia and I.  It's given her more confidence and more joy.  If we had quit early on because it was too challenging for us, none of that would have happened.  And that would have been a real shame.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!

I've been thinking a lot about what typically happens around this time of year: New Years Resolutions.  I'm not much for resolutions, those make it or break it types of desperate goal-making so many do as they head into the new year.  Instead, I tend toward goals, those things I'd like to achieve, those things I can strive for and work toward.

So here are some of my dog-related goals for 2013:

1. Learn to relax at trials and stop babysitting obstacles. Dahlia doesn't need the babysitting.  She will take the jump even if I don't stand near it and coax her anymore.  In fact, she finds this somewhat confusing.  So I will practice running at trials like I run at class.  If she misses a jump so what?  We may forfeit the Q, but we can continue to work on getting her to TTFJ (Take The F'in Jump!).

2. Get to more trials.  Well, maybe not more trials, but I would very much like to go to more two-day trials.  I enjoy having my Sundays to relax, but I think it would work better for Dahlia and I if we could settle into the trial atmosphere a bit more by being there both days.

3. Get Dahlia her Level 2 CPE title.  This may not be possible but I'm going to work toward it nonetheless!  We have two Q's toward the full title (Wildcard and Colors), but have a long way to go (14 more Q's, with 4 of those being in Standard).  Since Standard at this level includes all obstacles, it's going to be a bit rough going.  Dahlia can weave pretty well, she gets the teeter sometimes, but her dog walk is falling apart. At the very least, I hope to get her titles in Fun (Full House and Jumpers), Handler (Wildcard and Colors - we're halfway to this one!), and maybe even Strategy (Jackpot and Snooker).  If we can obtain those three I'll consider it a good year for us!

4. Work on Dahlia's dog walk issues.  This one is somewhat tough as we don't own a dog walk and we can only work on it in class. I'm hoping our instructor will have another "Happy Hour" drop-in class or another contacts and weaves class.  We definitely need one!  So what is Dahlia's dog walk issue?  She blows past it almost every single time we get to it.  Sometimes if I take her back and show her it, she'll get on it.  Sometimes she runs right by it time and time again. I'm starting to wonder if she even sees it. I read this article about how dog's color vision affects them in sports. It says, of equipment, "This way, if a dogwalk sits on a dirt brown surface, the yellow contact zone may be harder for the dog to see, but the rest of the dogwalk's up ramp will be easily seen."  Our dog walk does sit on a dirt brown surface in a building that is not all that bright late at night. It's possible that at speed it just blends into the ground and she doesn't see anything there at first.  She has also tried to jump up onto it from the side, again hinting that she may not be able to see the end of it as well as the blue part up above.  It's obviously something we need to work on, but I'm not sure how to work on it just yet.

5. Get in better shape.  Yes, this is related to dogs and agility! As Dahlia picks up speed, I need to be able to run better. I'm terribly out of shape and it hasn't much mattered until recently.  I'm not always able to beat my dog to where I need to be and we've had some crashes in class and some problems with my falling behind and not being able to tell her where to go next.  So I need to start to work on getting in better shape...for my dog!

6. Work on rear  crosses.  Coupled with #5, I also need to work on getting Dahlia understanding rear crosses.  As she starts to get more comfortable getting out in front of me, I need to be able to "steer from behind" on occasion.

So those are my goals for the new year.  Do you have any dog-related goals?

I'll leave you with a picture I took of Dahlia in Vermont on New Years Eve.  Every scenic photo is improved by the addition of a dog, don't you think?

Backyard agility...with no yard!

[This post was written for the Dog Agility Blog Action Day.  Check out many great posts here!]

I have no yard.

Well, I amend that.  I have a yard.  It's an approximately 10 foot by 10 foot patch of ratty grass full of pine cones, bushes, and one gigantic pine tree.  On top of that, it's my front yard and mere feet from the road.  The backyard is taken up with a large ramp and a garage that looks like it's falling apart. Ah, the beauty of living in a duplex in the city.

For someone like me, doing agility is a slow pain-staking process because practicing at home happens so rarely.  But here are some things I've done to practice backyard agility when I have no yard.

Shortly after I started training in agility, I purchased a single jump from Affordable Agility.  I would take that one jump and my dog down to a tiny corner of the park for training.  This one jump enabled me to practice extension (setting her up far back from it and calling her to me over it or running with her to the jump and past) and collection (standing by the jump and calling her to it so she wraps tightly around it).  Now that we're getting more advanced, I plan to use that one jump to practice sending her to it from further away.  She needs to learn to get further away than the tips of my fingers!

After that, I decided I needed more jumps.  So I purchased a set of travel jumps.  Now I had five jumps!  This enabled me to set up basic jump grids.

Having more than one jump also meant I could practice things we were really struggling with, like serpentines.

And I could even set up small sequences.  Please note this is very early on in our training!  We had only just begun doing sequences when I set this little one up.  We look much better now.

What else can you do with just 5 jumps (or even just 4 jumps)?  You can create simple box patterns to work on various elements.  A box involves just 4 jumps, set up in a box pattern.  This great website gives you a chance to let it design as many small courses as you want!

For instance, if I wanted to work on 270's and wraps (and straights/90s), I could check those boxes off and come up with this as something to try.

This website is a huge resource for those who want to create short courses at home, especially when you have a limited area to work in.  All you need is 4 jumps (6 if you want to do a star box or 7 if you want to do a complete double box) and a little bit of space.

Dahlia and the super cheap eBay tunnel!

In addition to the 5 jumps I own, I also bought a super cheap tunnel off eBay and a set of 6 stick-in-the-ground weave poles (which are sometimes more work than they're worth). The former has enabled me to work on Dahlia's tunnel hesitation.  The latter has enabled me to work a bit on her 2x2 weaves.


Where on earth do I set all this stuff up if not in my own ratty yard?  I find a quiet corner of a park, bring Dahlia and everything down, and then set it up.  It works fairly well, though it's certainly a bit of a chore (hence my not doing it too often and my not videotaping it when we do because that's just one more thing I need to set up!).

It also tends to attract everyone and their brother to find out what this oddball woman is doing down there making her dog go over jumps and through tunnels and through those weird pole things that stick up out of the ground.  Whenever I've gone down to the park and set up I've often become people's entertainment.  In some ways this is good.  If I had my own backyard, I wouldn't have so many distractions.  But down in the park I have kids who are running around, people watching with their dogs at their sides, and a lot of people passing us by.  It's been great for some distraction-proofing.

Now if I could just get those people to run by waving hot dogs to really distraction-proof my dog!  That would truly be a sight to behold, wouldn't it?

Dahlia, CTL1

Dahlia and I went to another CPE trial this last weekend.  We ended up just doing one day again and even though I wish I could have gone back the second day I was thankful for the day of rest since I'm still struggling with a back problem and recovering from a rather long bout of respiratory infection and bronchitis.

We did all four runs and that's something that is somewhat new for us.  When I first started going to trials I was afraid that Dahlia wouldn't have it in her to go back out so many times.  So we did two or three runs in a day.  That meant there was a lot of sitting around.  There still has.  Those four runs take all of about four  minutes (plus warm up time), but we're at least not waiting for three hours to do our next run.  As I'm finding out, Dahlia has no trouble doing four runs in a day.  She has time to rest and relax in between things.  So I figured why not?

We had a fairly successful day.  We started off a bit slow, probably due to the stress of the trial atmosphere (it was very crowded indoors!) and ended up NQ'ing in Jackpot despite completing the gamble (we were over time).  The second run was Wildcard and while it was slow, we completed it under SCT (standard course time) and Q'ed.  This was the one and only video I have of us over the weekend.

It's also the first time anyone has gotten a video of one of our qualifying runs!





We had another unsuccessful run with Jumpers.  Dahlia was actually looking really good until she had an itch.  We ultimately ended up going around one jump (the one she stopped to scratch in front of) and went far over course time as I sat there and was unable to stop her from scratching.  Such is life!  At least she was amusing.

The final run of the day was Snooker.  Ah, the dreaded Snooker.  As it turns out I really like the strategy of the game and I think it might be my favourite. Shhh...don't tell anyone!

We tried Snooker twice at our last trial and were almost successful (one time we were too slow; the second time we got whistled off the course after the opening).  I didn't have high hopes for this one because Snooker is really difficult and one part required making sure she didn't go back into the tunnel she just came out of.

Imagine my surprise when she was super excited to get out there, tugging and leaping for treats.  I set her up and she couldn't wait to go.  She came off the line well and completed the opening with no problem.  We got to the closing sequence (labeled 2 through 7) and got ourselves through to 5 before the whistle blew and the game was over.

We ended up with 21 points for the opening and 14 points for the closing, netting us a total of 35.  As we only needed 24, we Q'ed.

That gave Dahlia her fourth mini-title: CTL1-S (Level 1 Enthusiast Strategy title).  The four titles she got meant that she was awarded her full Level 1 title.  It was a very exciting moment and even the judge came out and hugged us.

Dahlia shows off her title ribbons

Not so Wordless Wednesday

Dahlia and I went to another CPE trial this past weekend.  I decided to do something I don't usually do: go to both days of the trial.  I have a tendency to go to one day, do a few runs, and call it a day.  This means that we never really settle into the trial atmosphere and I miss out on the fun of the second day!  Max 200, where we went this time, tends to be a small trial full of a lot of amazing people.  Plus it was the last outdoor trial of the season so I figured why not?

I'm glad I did!

Over the course of the weekend Dahlia and I did 7 runs.  We Q'ed in four of them.  We figured out how to work together really well by the end of the weekend and came very close to getting our full level 1 title.  But I bobbled and she saw a tunnel she wasn't supposed to take and despite my desperate attempts at calling her off of it, she went in anyway.  GAME OVER.

But besides that bobble, we were very successful at running courses (instead of just trotting them).  Some of that I have to thank a fellow competitor for.  She had a dog much like Dahlia and said she never did start line stays with him.  While I can do them (and do them well!) in class, at trials putting her in a sit means she loses all excitement and so comes off the start line incredibly slow.  In our first couple runs (one Q, one not), I put her in a sit and it wasn't until she got to a tunnel that she picked up speed and started looking like the agility dog she's been becoming.

In the later runs when I just held her until the annoying mechanical thing said "GO" and then took off running, she was much faster right from the get-go.

In fact, we finally got that darned Full House Q that's been eluding us all along.  We've just been too slow to get enough points.  This time we got 2 points more than needed and finished under course time.  The first buzzer didn't even go off!  I was very proud of my girl for getting out there and working in the cold (first day) and rain (second day) and giving me her all the entire time.

We ended up with a new title, so Dahlia is now Dahlia CTL1-H, CTL1-R, CTL1-F (Enthusiast titles: Handler, Standard, and Fun).

"Just not right..."

Two years, three months ago I started agility classes. We started with crate games and foundation training (mostly shaping) and Dahlia didn't get it.  At all.  I spent most of the class with her staring at me confused.  The other dogs picked it up right away.  That first class I went home from and thought "Maybe I shouldn't do this.  My dog just isn't right for this."  But I had signed up for a "puppy camp" that happened on a couple weekends and so I went back.

Two years ago we were just starting to transition out of our foundations classes.  We began our 2x2 weave training (just 2 poles at this point) and our instructor got out the wobble board, a round flat board with a ball on the bottom that "wobbles" around with the dog on it.  Dahlia was having none of it.  She was too afraid of the noise it made.  She didn't like the movement.  She would daintily put two paws on it and then leap off like she'd touched a hot stove.  I still kept thinking "My dog just isn't right for this."

A year and a half ago we were working on jump grids and pinwheels.  Dahlia was going around all wing jumps and we had to work hard to get her to do even a straight line over a series of wing jumps.  Pinwheels were next to impossible.  She stopped before each jump, looked at me, and waited to make sure I really really wanted her to go over it.  She was slow.  She was worried.  She couldn't weave 4 poles yet no matter how hard I tried.  I remember pulling my hair out in frustration on some days thinking "My dog just isn't right for this."

A year ago we were into our "tweeners" class and starting to do short sequences.  We had just learned crosses.  Dahlia was still going around jumps.  And she was starting to hesitate going into tunnels.  But every once in awhile, she would pick up speed and really just do it.  Our instructor said she would continue to pick up speed as she gained confidence.  I scoffed.  But when our instructor suggested we sign up for a CPE trial in November, despite my having started agility without any intention of ever going to a trial, I did so, though with a lot of trepidation.  I remember thinking "I don't think my dog is ready for this.  I'm afraid we're going to embarrass ourselves."

Six months ago Dahlia had gotten her first fairly minor agility title (CTL1-H), but had still not gotten on a contact at a trial.  She was struggling with the teeter and she could barely weave on my right side.  We were starting to get into harder sequences and Dahlia, while no fast dog, was starting to get them.  She was rocking her A-Frame as we had put a lot of practice into it for an upcoming trial.  All I could think was "I think Dahlia is starting to get this."

Three months ago Dahlia was still struggling with tunnel hesitation. I spent a lot of time in class rewarding her for taking tunnels.  We discovered at this time if I say "GO!" Dahlia is much more likely to take the tunnel.  It had become a sort of cue for it and so I started to use the word at tunnels more often.  For the first time I found myself thinking "She's starting to look like an agility dog."

One month ago Dahlia had received her second CPE agility title (CTL1-R) and had been to her first AKC trial where she successfully did a teeter, weaved, and got a send in a trial situation.  She was moving quickly and not refusing obstacles.  Her tunnel hesitation was almost gone.  She still struggled with weaves on the right side but she could complete them.  She was starting to do rear crosses and starting to work a little bit further away from me.  We were staying connected and she was becoming more accurate and sure of herself. I finally said to myself "Dahlia is a real agility dog."

Last night Dahlia weaved 12 poles on both sides, did brilliant teeter work, rocked her 2on/2off contacts on all contact obstacles, kicked ass on her A-Frame, and just blew me away.

My mellow, sweet, silly mutt really is an agility dog.  Sometimes I look back on this progression and it's hard to believe I walked into an agility class over 2 years ago with no intention of going to a trial and never imagining we would make it this far.  Yet here we are.  Going to trials, having a blast, and I watch Dahlia's confidence and joy continuing to go up each and every week.  She's so smart and just such an amazing dog.  I feel very lucky to have started off my agility career with a dog like this.  I couldn't be happier with her.

Pictures from the AKC trial!

When I decided to sign up for the AKC trial I was very hopeful that there would be a photographer there.  I've gotten a handful of decent photos of Dahlia from previous trials but I always want more.  And not only that, but she's looking faster and more excited.  I wanted to see what she looked like.

Lucky for me, the good folks at Pet Proof Photography were there taking photos.  Our first run was in the pouring rain and while I saw them out there, I suspect they didn't take many photos of our runs.  Bad luck for me!

They did, however, take several photos of our second (FAST) run and I was so pleased with them, I bought downloads of three of the photos.

This first two are of Dahlia actually taking the send!  As I mentioned in my last post this was huge for us.  Absolutely huge.  Dahlia is a "Velcro Dog" (she reminds me a bit of Needy Dög) and it amazed me that she got the confidence up to take a jump that I couldn't get within 6 feet or so of.  This may not be a huge deal to most folks, but it sure was for us!





 

You can probably figure out exactly where I was by following her gaze!  For the record, she did indeed take the tunnel that followed this but only after heading toward me and then going back out to it.  It was still an impressive feat for my girl!

The last photo is of Dahlia's first time ever taking a panel jump (they have none where we train).  I'll let you look at it for just a moment.  I hope it makes you laugh.

 

Just how high did she jump anyway?  Here's the thing: she jumped huge to make it over the jump (compare her jumping in the one above).  Not long ago this dog would have simply gone around it.  The first several times she saw wing jumps she went around them.  So here she was in a trial situation taking a jump she had never seen before and she did it.

It was a beautiful run.  Had I just kept moving forward and taken the last two jumps, we would have gotten our first AKC Q.  But because I'm a green handler (who cannot count) I made a stupid mistake and cost us 6 points in overtime, putting us down to 45, 5 points below what we needed to Q.

It's ok though.  She still looked great!  And these trials are not about winning for me.  They're about having fun with my dog.  And they're an assessment of our training.  Here I learned to trust my dog and to not second guess myself!  I hope it helps at our next outing later this month!

Dahlia's first AKC trial

Dahlia and I have been trialing in CPE (Canine Performance Events, Inc.).  We started there for two major reasons: (1) It's really newbie friendly and (2) Level 1 does not require the weaves or the teeter (the two hardest obstacles).  In addition to that, the courses for Level 1 are fairly straight-forward with usually only one or two changes of side.  We really started there for the first reason.  As a green handler with a green low-drive dog and as someone who is in it just for fun and especially as someone who gets really nervous, knowing people would be supportive was very important to me.

Recently my instructor talked us into trying an AKC.  I registered Dahlia with them over a year ago just in case (Dahlia's full AKC name is Spanley's One of the Seven) so we really had no excuse.  I signed up for one day of a four-day trial and decided to do just two runs: JWW (Jumpers with weaves) and FAST (a game where you get to make up your own course and attempt some distance handling).  I decided that Standard was just a bit too much for us this time around.  Two runs seemed like plenty for our first time out.

Now, I have to admit that my impression of the AKC is generally not all that positive.  I once had a nasty run-in online with someone who competed heavily in AKC that nearly scared me out of trialing all together.  And I've always seen AKC as extremely competitive.  In addition to that I...well...I have a mutt.  The AKC only started allowing mixed breeds to compete in non-conformation events two years ago.  And I can assure you that the decision was not likely out of the goodness of their hearts and probably came more from their pocketbook.

So I went into this trial with a bit of trepidation, pretty sure that I would try AKC once and only once and then return to CPE happy to know that I knew my place.

What I found was completely the opposite of what I expected.  Everyone was incredibly nice to me.  Even the judge came up to me after our first run and complimented me on how well it went (despite NQing).  Our NQ was because Dahlia blew past a jump (two in the end) but I made the choice to not take her back to redo them since she had good energy and was moving really well.  This was the first time I was able to make the choice to sacrifice the Q to keep her excitement up.

We didn't Q in either run, but both runs went incredibly well.  She did a good rear cross and weaved in her JWW run.  She did a brilliant teeter, and was able to go out and away from me to take a jump and a tunnel in her FAST run.  We would have had that darned Q if I didn't screw up royally and force us into over time.

Our instructor got a video of our first run.  The part I'm most proud of?  Dahlia's release off her start-line stay.  For Dahlia, this was brilliant!  But I'm also proud of her weaves and that despite blowing past a couple jumps she moved well and didn't once hesitate (except when I suddenly stopped).  She's lovely to watch, in my oh so humble opinion.



We'll definitely be returning to the AKC!  The course was a lot of fun and we had a great time at the trial.

Some updates

I haven't posted much except some photos here lately.  There are multiple reasons, but here's the big one:

I'm now part of a group of dog folks posting on a brand new and truly awesome blog (if I do say so myself).  We call ourselves Team Unruly and the folks who write for the blog do almost everything you could imagine with their dogs: agility, rally, obedience, conformation, dock diving, hiking, camping, Schutzhund, and more!  It's a fairly diverse group of people but we all have a couple things in common: (1) We're all mostly positive reinforcement trainers and (2) We all love our dogs!

So if you'd like to check out Team Unruly, you can find the blog here.

And if you're a Facebook type, you can join us on Facebook here.  We'll occasionally be having contests.  We've had two already: two folks won gorgeous collar charms from NatInDesign and two folks won amazing fleece tugs by Red Dog Tugs.  So if you're interested in the blog, you'll definitely want to "like" the Facebook page so you can get in on all the good stuff going on there!

Besides that, Dahlia and I continue to go to agility classes and trials.  She's making constant progress and is getting faster, more confident, and more joyful in her runs.  She's weaving 6 poles regularly and can weave 12 poles on occasion (we're getting there with those 12 poles!).  We're figuring out how to work well as a team. It's amazing to me when I watch her do these runs.  She's gaining so much confidence and looking so much more independent.  Sometimes I still can't believe this is the same dog I took home all those years ago.  She truly has grown into a lovely and joyful dog and that's so important to me.  I love my girly.  I don't know what I'd do without her!

She has two CPE titles now: CTL1-H (Handler's title) and CTL1-R (Standard title).

 

She looks very proud modeling her big fancy ribbons doesn't she?  She may not know what they mean, but I think she knows how proud I am of her.

What a difference a month makes (aka Dahlia's second agility trial!)

Dahlia's first agility trial was a nervewracking experience but in the end we had a lot of fun and brought home one qualifying ribbon.  It was far more than I expected for the first time out and so I was quite pleased.

But I kept watching the video of us at the trial over and over again.  I realized she was slow and hesitated because I hesitated.  Because I was scared she'd blow past an obstacle and I desperately wanted her to take them all.  It finally got through to me that if I just keep running, it's much more likely that she will keep running.  The week after the last trial, we looked like this in class:





We moved so much better together and we're both speeding up!

So I took that to the trial this weekend.  How did Dahlia do?  Well, she blew Standard entirely.  We seem to have a problem that is really surprising me: Despite rocking the A-Frame at class and being pretty comfortable on the dog walk, she completely avoids them in trial situations.  Admittedly, some of the issue the first time out was that I was so focused on the A-Frame (which was obstacle #3 in the run) that I looked away, disconnected from her, and lost her entirely before she even hit the second jump.  So our Standard run, while not a disaster (she hit every jump and tunnel past that beautifully) was not successful.  NQ.

The second two runs we did were Colors and Wildcard, both ones that we NQ'ed on at the previous trial.

Well, I'm happy to report that Dahlia totally nailed both of them.  We got a qualifying score with no faults on Colors (28.07 seconds) and Wildcard (30.43 seconds), which netted us our first (very small) agility title: The CTL1-H, Level 1 Entusiast Handler Games title.

Here's Dahlia sporting her fancy new ribbon and looking quite proud of herself!

Dahlia's first agility trial!

This weekend we went to our very first agility trial.  For the first time, we opted to go with CPE (Canine Performance Events).  Everyone I spoke to, including our instructor, assured us that it was the most relaxed and most newbie-friendly of the venues.  And ultimately, they were right.

We had a fantastic weekend full of some ups and downs.  We did four runs, and NQ'ed on three of them.  Two were a total disaster.  But she got a qualifying score on one run (Jumpers Level 1) and a first place ribbon for it, both of which were nice to go home with.  I didn't expect her to get any Q's this weekend so I was really quite happy with that!

Perhaps the best part about it was how focused she was on me and how hard she tried through each and every run.  The one thing that threw her for a loop and ended up causing the three NQ's was "contact anxiety."  She wouldn't get on the dog walk in one run.  I had been worried about the dog walk from the get go.  She's comfortable with it usually, but this one was different from the others that she's seen.  It had no slats, was not rubberized, and I watched many dogs who hit it hard and nearly slipped off the ramp leading up to it.  It was also a little wobbly. Our instructor flat-out refused to let her dog get on it.  Dahlia was apparently smart enough to refuse it and instead of being a good human, I kept trying to get her on it.  After three times I finally gave up!

She also struggled with the A-Frame, flat out refusing it once and starting up it a second time but then deciding against it.  Like the dog walk it was not rubberized, though it did have slats and was more sturdy than the dog walk.  But I did watch some dogs slipping on the way down and so ultimately she was probably smart for getting off it instead of hurting herself by continuing up and over.  Had she been able to do it, we would have had a qualifying run for the Colors course and might have gotten one for Full House as well.

Overall, though, it was a fantastic experience.  I had my down moments (like when she totally blew the Full House course), but mostly I felt pretty good about what we had accomplished.  And now I know some things that need to be further trained!  I'm hoping to find some fun matches (aka Show 'n' Go's) in the area to get her up onto equipment she hasn't seen before.

But we'll also be going to another trial.  This one is on December 3rd.  We'll be doing three runs (Standard, Colors, and Wildcard) that day.  It should be great fun!

Dahlia was happy enough to model her ribbons.  Doesn't she look proud of herself?


 


And for anyone interested, here's a video of our second run of the second day.  This was the Colors course where she started up the A-Frame but then turned around and came back down before getting too far.  Unfortunately I forgot to have someone videotape her really good run!  Try not to laugh too hard over how slow she is.  She was faster the day before, but not by much!